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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[123] it was these men that, I presume, set new fires farther to the windward in the northern part of the city. Old men, women, and children, with everything that they could get out, were huddled together in the streets. At some places we found officers and kind-hearted soldiers protecting families from the insults and roughness of the careless. One instance in particular which I recall was the protection given to the house and family of the Rev. Dr. A. Toomer Porter, who had been a Confederate chaplain. Lieutenant McQueen, of Captain William Duncan's company, belonging to my escort, remained with this family or near it throughout the conflagration. He had the fires quenched as they came near, or protected wood that was heated against the flames by one contrivance or another. He was so kind and considerate that he won the affection of Dr. Porter and all belonging to his household. Not long after we left Columbia, Captain Duncan, with his company, was on a scout toward the lower portion of South Carolina. He ran into some troops of Confederate cavalry in the darkness of the night. He fought them bravely and succeeded in saving his command, but left the generous and brave lieutenant so desperately wounded on the field that he could not be removed without endangering his life. He was finally placed in a Carolina household, where he was cared for, but where, owing to the excitement then existing in the country, his life was believed to be in peril. Dr. Porter chanced to hear of the wounded officer, and also of his weak condition and danger. The doctor immediately made his way to the house where he was confined by his wounds, stayed with him, and nursed him until he was able to move. Then he procured
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